Panasonic has announced the Lumix G2 and G10 cameras in the Micro 4/3 standard. The G2, which is a refresh of the popular G1 / GH1 and will presumably eventually replace them, has a touch-activated viewing screen, and the G10 is a stripper model with fewer features (mainly, it lacks the articulated screen) and a lower price. (It also offers name confusion with Canon's product, but that sort of thing appears to be popular in the camera market.)
The press release is here.*
Mike
*TOP reader Lynn B. points out that the press release doesn't mean "pallet" of options, unless you have to lift them with a forklift. Ah, Spell Checker.
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While these two cameras (and the Olympus E-PL1) certainly bode well for the m4/3 format and its acceptance by the marketplace, there's not much here to encourage existing m4/3 users to upgrade. Worse still for existing m4/3 users is that at least for the near term, it appears the manufacturers' focus is directed downmarket, not upmarket, which means the first batch of m4/3 cameras released remains the format's high-water mark. For an early adopter such as yours truly, the release of these two new cameras isn't the encouraging development I'd hoped to hear. :-/
Posted by: Jeffrey Goggin | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 09:28 AM
Don't you just want to smack hell out of companies who put out press releases for new products and they don't include the two most important bits of info: Price and Availability?
Posted by: Sam | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 10:02 AM
It's an update to the G1, since it adds AVCHD Lite, but it's not an update to the GH1 which has full res AVCHD.
Posted by: Account Deleted | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 10:27 AM
Jeffrey Goggin,
worse still for existing m4/3 users is that at least for the near term, it appears the manufacturers' focus is directed downmarket, not upmarket
Ahem. The downmarket provides the heaping gobs of cash that support the research and development of the upmarket cameras. If you like a camera system, you want lots and lots of non-professionals buying into it, because that creates a pool of used lenses, for instance, that you can draw from later.
In any case, isn't it a little early to be encouraged to upgrade? The EP-2 following so closely on the EP-1's heels was a trifle unsettling as it was. (Not that I would mind if Olympus comes up with a pancake 17mm f/1.4 in the next month or so.)
Posted by: Carl Mosher | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 11:34 AM
There seems to be a lot of disappointment over these.
OK, so the E-PL1 raised expectations for budget possibilities. And OK, so almost everyone would prefer an unbundled GH1 body to a new body with the G1's sensor.
But I don't understand the assumption that this is it for the new m4/3 cameras, or even for new Panasonic m4/3 cameras. If the past is any clue, we're just months away from a new Pen (ba-dum-bum; *crash*). Seriously, though, there's more coming, right?
Posted by: robert e | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 11:37 AM
I agree completely with Jeffrey even though I don't own a m4/3 camera.
For more serious uses, there seems little to get excited about here.
Posted by: Paddy C | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 11:38 AM
What's a "stripper model"? Motion stabilized for the crazy dance routines?
Posted by: Keith Loh | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 12:05 PM
"Don't you just want to smack hell out of companies who put out press releases for new products and they don't include the two most important bits of info: Price and Availability?"
That's usually because a) the software engineers haven't given the absolute final last stamp of go-ahead on the shipping version of the firmware and b) the final MSRP's will be determined at a hectic meeting like the day before the product ships, taking into account exchange rates, shifting market conditions, high hopes, plentiful fears, and fingers in the wind....
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 02:09 PM
"I agree completely with Jeffrey even though I don't own a m4/3 camera. For more serious uses, there seems little to get excited about here."
Well, I'm not excited, and I *shoot* Panasonic.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 02:14 PM
obviously Panasonic rules the micro 4/3 game ... looking forward to taste some it :)
Posted by: Peter Hovmand | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 02:26 PM
Nothing to get excited about?, the G1 price has fallen and it comes with a cash back. How small would a G1 be with the 20mm lens, is it any larger than the GF1 and its EVF, or an EP2 with EVF.
I think it sounds interesting :-)
Not a m4/3 owner, but someone looking at options for a compact camera. to compliment a dSLR.
Posted by: John | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 06:48 PM
"Nothing to get excited about?"
John,
Well, you could get excited if you don't have one of these cameras and want something like the two new ones. I only meant that, like most slight updates or upgrades, it's not very exciting compared to an all-new product. That's all. No offense meant, to you or to Panasonic.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 07:25 PM
Carl:
Ahem. The downmarket provides the heaping gobs of cash that support the research and development of the upmarket cameras. If you like a camera system, you want lots and lots of non-professionals buying into it, because that creates a pool of used lenses, for instance, that you can draw from later.
I agree with you in theory, but what you propose is only true if Panasonic ultimately comes out with an upmarket camera. They never did get around to doing that after they went downmarket with the L10 after their first 4/3-format camera and my fear is that the same thing could happen again with their m4/3-format cameras, the "heaping gobs of cash support" from the G2 and G10 notwithstanding.
Posted by: Jeffrey Goggin | Monday, 08 March 2010 at 11:00 PM
I think the m4/3-format will rule the world very, very soon ... Why not?
Posted by: Peter Hovmand | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 06:05 AM
Jeffrey Goggin,
Okay, so you have history on your side :)
That's a good point. Heaping gobs of cash help not at all if the company doesn't choose to take risks.
Posted by: Carl Mosher | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 10:01 AM
"Well, I'm not excited," - Mike
Me neither. '_^
" and I *shoot* Panasonic." - Mike
Me too. ^_^
Posted by: Frank | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 10:52 AM
The "heaping gobs of cash support" model only works if you can supply heaping gobs of cameras. Panasonic seems to have a lot of trouble doing that. I don't think fun zoom sales alone can provide enough gobs.
Posted by: robert e | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 05:25 PM
No offence taken Mike. I approach cameras these days like I used to approach computers @ 10 years ago.
The advice then was buy behind the wave, i.e buy what was top notch a year before but costs a lot less now. The G1 looks to be at a very good price, and as you mention the new camera hardly looks any better.
Good time for those on a budget, bad time if you want progress.
Posted by: John | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 07:01 PM
what about the 14mm f/2.5?
Posted by: scalia | Tuesday, 09 March 2010 at 08:35 PM
I must admit, reading the announcement, I scratched my head. Neither camera add much to the current line-up (add touch, remove lots, depending on which) so... Is it just another case of "we HAVE to release SOMETHING"? The G1 was a first. The GH1 added HD video. The GF1 added pocketability (of sorts). These add... er... two more references to the model list?
Posted by: Ludovic | Wednesday, 10 March 2010 at 08:37 AM